Elmwood jail and Milpitas have had a long and turbulent relationship. The jail has gone through several reincarnations: first as a rich man’s mansion, then as a homeless shelter, and then a jail.

Most recently, the sale of some land around Elmwood is helping provide one of the city’s hottest commodities: new housing.

Elmwood, one of two facilities operated by the Santa Clara County Department of Correction, has blue-blooded roots.

In the 1870s, it was owned by John O’Toole, who farmed and raised thoroughbred horses and built a Victorian mansion on the property. O’Toole sold the property to James Boyd in 1883, who then sold it to Santa Clara County for $24,000 in 1884. The county began using the property as an almshouse for the elderly and the poor, prompting residents to dub the mansion the “palace for the poor.”

The property became a haven for the homeless, where they could live and work on the farm. They would sell produce and wild mushrooms at a stand by the road, said Bob Burrill, president of the Milpitas Historical Society.

“It was kind of an off-limits area,” he said. “People would stay away from the poor people.”

In the 1950s, Santa Clara County began using the almshouse to house low-risk prisoners as well, establishing what would become the Elmwood Correctional Complex. People who lived in the area did not like having the jail there because it gave the area a bad reputation, but the prisoners soon came in handy.

When residents wanted to incorporate Milpitas as a city, they faced a dilemma because the law stated that a town needed a population of 500 in order to become incorporated. The town had only 400 residents, but the group at Elmwood had an equal-size population. The soon-to-be city asked if the Elmwood population could be counted as part of their population. The county said yes, and in 1954, Milpitas officially became a city.

After that, Elmwood’s population grew exponentially. In 1962, the last of the homeless, eight old men, were evicted, and the O’Toole mansion was demolished to make way for a county jail. By the 1990s, the prison housed minimum- and medium-security male inmates, and female inmates of all security levels. Currently, the jail houses about 2,500 inmates, who stay for an average of 111 days.

Elmwood jail has always been a source of contention between Milpitas and Santa Clara County, Burrill said.

“People would ask, where is the jail? And they would say, `Oh, it’s out in Milpitas,’ ” Burrill said. “The reputation adds up. People would make jokes about the area.”

At one point, Milpitas offered Santa Clara County $37 million to move the jail out of Milpitas. But in 1984, the county decided it was too much of a hassle to move Elmwood.

Now residents are used to having the jail.

“Obviously, no city would want to have a jail within its confines, but we’ve grown accustomed to it,” Milpitas Councilman Bob Livengood said. “Elmwood is kind of like the crazy uncle who shows up to Christmas every year, and you wish he wouldn’t show up, but he does.”

Elmwood inmates benefit the community, says Mark Cursi, Elmwood’s spokesman. The jail works with the Milpitas Adult Education Program to provide classes for the inmates, such as auto classes, computer training and parenting classes.

In the woodworking program, inmates build cabinets and tables, but in their free time, they also build toys such as puzzles and scooters that are donated to Toys for Tots.

“We want our jail to be more than a place to store people,” Cursi said.

And now, the quickly growing city has reached a compromise between its desire for housing and its distaste for the jail. In 2003, Santa Clara County sold 57 acres of Elmwood jail property. Part of the property along Interstate 880 will be used by auto dealerships, and part was bought by developer KB Home.

City officials say that developing the land around the jail does double duty by providing much-needed housing and also ensuring that the jail won’t expand any more.

“The important thing we did was to tie up the land around Elmwood,” said Vice Mayor Armando Gomez Jr. “It eliminates any possibility of it expanding.”

KB Home is constructing a 29-acre community of 683 condominiums, townhouses and single-family homes, along with four parks, and basketball and tennis courts. The homes, which will be completed in the next few years, have been selling well, said Craig LeMessurier, a KB Home spokesman.

“It’s so centrally located to San Jose and Silicon Valley, so I don’t think it being next to a jail is a factor,” LeMessurier said.

[…] History confined in jail Elmwood jail and Milpitas have had a long and turbulent relationship. The jail has gone through several reincarnations: first as a rich man’s mansion, then as a homeless shelter, and then a jail. […]

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